Category Archives: disability

Disabled shoppers deterred by difficult high street experience

January 14, 2014   Carers, disability
Survey respondents say staff attitudes and poor access increasingly push them to shop online

 

Empty … a survey shows that many disabled people prefer to shop online rather than tackle the high street.

Disabled people are being forced to shop online because of poor access in and around UK town centres and difficulties using basic but essential facilities such as changing rooms or toilets, a report has claimed.

Many disabled customers are struggling to access shops, cafes and restaurants, with some shoppers even saying they felt “invisible” after being ignored by rude and insensitive staff who addressed their companions or carers instead of them directly.

The report, Short-changed, compiled by the muscular dystrophy campaign group Trailblazers, was based on the experiences of a 100-strong group of disabled 16-30-year-olds.

They gave examples of retailers misusing changing areas, toilets and lifts – intended for use by the disabled – as storage space, breaching health and safety regulations by piling them high with boxes.

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Merseyside woman to pay bedroom tax on sensory room for severely disabled daughter

January 2, 2014   Carers, disability, ukcuts

Dawn Lennon said she was now facing having to cut back on food in order to remain in her home

 
Dawn Lennon 52,from Castlefields,Runcorn,with her severely disabled daughter Kelly Marie 28,who is being charged Bedrom Tax for a spare room which is full of equipment.
By Marc Waddington

A Merseyside woman must pay the bedroom tax on a room which has been converted into a sensory area for her severely disabled daughter.

Dawn Lennon faces finding more than £570 a year because the government has deemed the room to be spare.

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MP’s blast over welfare ‘cruelty’

December 20, 2013   Carers, disability, ukcuts, welfare

The hardships being suffered by Blackpool residents were laid bare to Prime Minister David Cameron during a heated exchange in Parliament.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden used yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time to put pressure on Mr Cameron about the impact welfare reforms are having on ordinary people.

He said: “As the Prime Minister sits down for Christmas dinner to’ chillax’ with his family and friends, will he spare a thought for my Blackpool constituents, and half a million others, whose Christmas is mired in the incompetence and random cruelty of DWP’s benefits sanctions.

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